Conventional solutions for secure printing attach printing rights to an individual person. Typically, a person sending a secure text and/or image file, may encrypt that file, send it over a network to a recipient, and the recipient, on receiving the file, decrypts the file using a known encryption mechanism, on a personal computer (PC) or other equivalent computer entity. Having decrypted the file, the recipient can send the file to print, load the file onto a data carrier such as a floppy disk, writable CD ROM, digital data storage (DDS) format device or similar. Prior art systems have the characteristic that firstly, once decrypted, there is no limitation on the number of prints which can be made from a received file. Secondly, receipt of the document is location independent. Provided the correct decryption software is loaded into a computer entity, there is no restriction on where the document can be decoded or on which individual computer entity, or printer device printing of a document can take place. Thirdly, the ability to decrypt data follows possession of a decryption key and decryption software, and a person having that key and software has potentially no physically enforceable restrictions on use of the document once decrypted.
In commercial or government organizations, different types of information are accorded different levels of security. For example, a typical four level security system may comprise:                Level zero—documents freely available to anyone inside or outside the organization, publicly available material.        Level one—documents which are restricted for employees or personnel within the organization, and which are not to be released outside the organization.        Level two—documents which are of a company confidential nature, such as technical reports, project specifications, and documents for which there would be commercial or other disadvantage in allowing to leak outside the organization        Level three—documents having restricted access to named individuals, for example take over/merger plans, personnel files, details of individuals salaries, business plans, financially sensitive data such as company financial accounts before publication, and defense or governmental classified information.        
For higher security level information, individual paper documents may be individually numbered, and named individuals authorised to read the documents listed within the documents. Documents may be subject to restrictions, such as a bar on photocopying the documents, and restriction on the number of physical copies in circulation.
Electronic storage of such documents may also be restricted to machines which can be physically locked away.
With prior art secure electronic document solutions using computers, a recipient is allowed access to an electronic version of a file, which can be loaded onto a data carrier. The underlying assumption is that a person authorised at a particular security level has access to information in electronic storable format. However, whilst physical paper documents containing information are readily physically identifiable and can be checked by security personnel on leaving a building, electronic data can be easily passed out of an organizations premises and computer networks by electronic means, and in large quantities, without trace.
Although paper based information is not entirely secure, and is capable of being photocopied or sent by facsimile, it requires more time and effort to photocopy documents, or send them by facsimile, than it does to send documents electronically. The speed of sending electronic documents, and the large data volumes which can be sent without trace, make electronic storage of documents inherently less traceable and less secure, than the same information stored in paper format.